I was telling a new friend about my blog and heÂ immediately sent me a link to Child’s own studio. Here’s the deal, Wendy made a doll for her 4 year old son, based on a sketch he made. Her son was so excited about theÂ softiesÂ and Wendy realized that this was her calling, making dolls out ofÂ childrenÂ doodles. If you’ve been reading this blog since I started it, you will surly remember the post about my avatar doll. Unfortunatly I just learned that the game I love is shutting down. Thanks for my friend i’ll have my pet stay with me, long after the game is gone.

This gift is similar, but even more moving since it uses the child’s own imagination in creating a doll that is truly unique.

I know that I’ve been writing a lot about familyÂ affairs lately, but I did become a mother only four months ago, and it was Mother’s and Father’s Day…. So I guess I needed to get it out of my system. In any case, allow me to share with you one more family related post (though I donâ€™t promise it would be the last).

Let’s discuss babies. I love them, but when I have to get a gift for the new family, I often getÂ frustrated. I never know what to buyâ€¦ (Me! Can you believe?). I don’t like to get baby cloths since they grow right out of them; I received about ten teddy bears and five blankets when my son was born, so I stay away from those. And I hate to admit it but since I got a lot of stuff from my sister who had twins, I had to exchange most of the gifts I received.Â Another matter is that I sometimes feel the need to perk mommy, daddy and the siblings, and then I have to start looking for gifts at several placesâ€¦Not idealâ€¦

This is why, when I heard about Babatude boutique, I was happy to see that there is something for every member of the family. But thatâ€™s not all; the boutique offers unique, eco-friendly, handmade and personalized products by designers from around the world. They offer customized gifts, free world-wide shipping (love that!) and free gift wraps. Â Some of the designers even pledge to charity, which gives you the chance to give twice, once for your recipient and back to the community.

Here are my personal favorites:

Like father like son: oak-tree and acorn tshirt set, a great way to give a gift for both daddy and baby.

Being a big brother is a huge deal… A superman top will help himÂ live up to his new title.

And for the big sister… I just think any girl would love these strawberry ballerina pumps… I wish I had a pair….

If you don’t want to focus on one member of the family, a great option is buying a decor item for the nursery, then everyone can enjoy the gift:

The wildlife mobile is wonderful if you don’t know the nursery colors since it’s plain wooden and therefore will work with any shade.

The felt globe is more than just wall decor, it is actually a great game for any age… So it’s great for older brothers or sister as well…

“HowÂ tall am I” height chart is another wonderful choice,Â especiallyÂ if you are feelingÂ philanthropic. This designerÂ provides educational materials and resources to South African children in need. It’s so nice to know that you are giving to more than one person.

These are my choices but be sure to pay them a visit. Once you do, you will realize how difficult it was to choose from their wonderful products. Take your time and browse, I would love to hear your personal favorites.

I am determined to succeed in combining motherhood with blogging.Â Therefore, I am forcing myself to spare a few minutes while my young one sleeps, so I can keep up with my blogging duties. Luckily, I saw and â€œstarredâ€ in my reader this beautiful and well executed gift idea by Michelle from Wood and Fabric. So not only do I get to share a wonderful idea with you, but it relates to my new role as a mother, allowing me to share my thoughts in the most authentic manner.

As a fresh mom, I am still getting used to all the new roles that come with motherhood, therefore, I don’t really have the time to document my baby’s “first steps” in this world as I wish I could have. I believe that if I had a scrapbook like this one, such that has all the info in it, that I just have to fill in, I would be able to document all the new changes my little one is going through. Regardless,Â I think that Michelle did such an admirableÂ craftsmanship, paying attention to each and every detail. The cute shoes with cards forÂ greetings, the cute pockets with notes and all the cute little ornaments she added.

I know that the owl trend is getting bigger and bigger, however, one of my friends began the owl trend first (Honestly)! This must be at least the third birthday I give her an owly gift… In addition, this year we celebrated her B-day with an owl themed party. Since I wasn’t ready with a gift (I know, I know I always say plan ahead… But I am great at giving advise, not following it), I came up with an idea for a card, thinking that I’ll get her a gift later. The card was really easy to make:

Owl cardÂ tutorial:

You will need:

1. A4 paper (I used paper of printed drafts, I always keep them for recycling).

2. Heart shape puncher

3. Coloring pencils

4. Glue stick

How I did it:

Body: I used a heart shape puncher and punched out 13 hearts and colored them with color pencils. Then I stacked them in aÂ pear likeÂ shape to make the body of the owl and glued them to the card.

Head: I cut the owl head, colored the face of the owl with Â and glued it over the cutout hearts.

Then I realized that if the card was this easy to make, why not make a similar image on a tank top?

Felt owl top tutorial:

You will need:

1. Cutout felt hearts

2. Small felt piece for head

3.Â embroidery string

4. Needle

5. Fabric scissors

I admit, this was a little bit tricky… Mind you, if I can pull it off with my poor sewing skills, then so can you.

Body: This time instead of gluing the cutout hearts, I sewed them directly to the top, overlapping them arbitrarily, still maintaining the body shape.

Head: I cut the head shape out of a smallÂ pieceÂ of felt (sort of like a cat head shape but with smaller ears). Don’t sew it to the shirt just yet… You still have to sew the owl’s eyes and beak to the face.

Eyes: The eyes were the tricky part. I took one of the cutout hearts and cut two ellipse shapes out of it, so far so good, then I had to stitch an embroidery of the eyelashes to the felt eye, I used a back stitchÂ since it is moreÂ dense. Use aÂ running stitchÂ to sew the eye to the head of the owl.

Beak: use a smaller cutout heart (I simply cut a little one out of a big one) and sew it to the head.

Now is the time to sew the head over the body, again, using theÂ running stitchÂ alongÂ the outline of the owl head and you are done!!!

Since this is more or less the first sewing tutorial I’ve written, I hope that itÂ was easy to follow, please let me know if something is not clear.

As always, IÂ recommendÂ that you use your imagination to improve this DIY in order to fit to your own needs. If you made this, you are welcome to share your result with me, I always love to see how other people’s DIY’s turn out.

My good friend and wonderful designer Shani Ring Posted some great wrapping idea’s on her blog DesiRing. This reminded me that I have gathered some great wrapping idea’s myself, and that this is the perfect time to share them with you.

Wrapping should be an important part of the gift… I wish I could say that I put an effort into my wrapping, but that would be a lie… Usually, by the time I get to making a card or wrapping the gift, I get too lazy…It’s not that I don’t have great idea’s or craft supplies… Plain oldÂ lazinessÂ is my enemy here. Shame on me! However, The good thing about being a blogger, is that I canÂ give an advise I’m not going to follow… Hopefully my readers won’t be as lazy as I am, and this post will help them with some great wrapping ideas.

When wrapping, you want to take out all the craft supplies that you own: Ribbon’s, buttons’ pendant’s, colors, scrap paper, origami paper stamps, punchers,Â etc. ThinkÂ differentÂ when you look for wrapping paper. You can use oldÂ comics magazines, newspapers, children books, fabrics… I love using a niceÂ cardboardÂ or tin box for wrapping, this way it can be reused as a decorative item.

One of my great friends started studying stage and costumeÂ design. Although she is very talented, she is often insecure about her abilities, which is funny since she is one of the most creative andÂ talentedÂ people I know.Â Since I know how easy it is to forget your talents andÂ strengths while underÂ pressure of studies, I decided to make a small reminder.

I used my poor sewing skills in order to make her anÂ encouragementÂ kit. This kit is basically a small feltÂ envelope filled with felt hearts that carries the words “I can do it”, “I Know”, “I Believe”. The idea is that each time she feels insecure about her capabilities, she can take out the kit and repeat this mantra. Sometimes all you need is a little reminder that somebody believes in you.

It is not that often that I run into such a great gift idea, a beautiful personal story, that is translated into a moving Â gift idea. This beautifulÂ embroideredÂ geography love pillow by Erin from In Between Laundry,Â makes such a remarkable gift idea.

The key to a great personal gift such as this one, is finding a way to break down a personal story into it’s core idea and then interpret this idea into an image. This pillowÂ representsÂ the well known story of boy meets girl, boy fallsÂ in loveÂ with girl, they live miles and miles away, have to fight aÂ communistÂ government in order to finally get married. I know, I know, this pillow doesn’t represent all of that, however, this idea is simple, lovely and heartwarming nonetheless.

I started thinking about baby gifts, since one of my friends gave birth a few weeks ago. She is a funny,Â mischievous person with a vivid personality and I wanted to make aÂ humerusÂ gift for her, since I know she willÂ appreciateÂ a good laugh. I thought that what mothers really need is some peace and quite. Since my friend has a great sense ofÂ humorÂ I decided to make a volume buttonÂ baby romper for her.

Â

This is a simple FeltÂ embroideryÂ button you can do by yourself.Â I used the blanket stitchÂ for the volume notches and a simple running stitch for the lettering and numbering. I then glued it to the baby romper. Since I haven’t done any embroidery in a while… I made some rookie mistakes such as sewing the pattern after sewing the two felt circles with the blanket stitch… This left quite a mess at the back, luckily I’ve glued it to the romper so you can’t see the messy part.

WhileÂ thisÂ gift will beÂ appreciatedÂ by those with a good sense of humor, some mothers won’t be so happy toÂ receiveÂ it…Â RememberÂ know yourÂ receiverÂ and give with care.

WhenÂ conceptualizingÂ a gift idea, I often have to think of the graphics that the person whoÂ receivesÂ the gift would like. The style can vary from classic, vintage, romantic, modern etc… TheÂ different graphics are key for personalizing the gift. I used to rely on finding online freebies andÂ printable items. However, I recentlyÂ discovered Karen’s Graphic’s fairy blog which is a real gem in the world wide web. The graphic’s fairy blog holds around 2000 free images which you can download and use. Karen finds vintage paper graphics, she scans them and cleans them up so we could all enjoy them.

The great thing is thatÂ youÂ are able to search for items by themes and find the perfect graphics for your craft, DIY,Â scrap bookingÂ etc…

I just downloaded some graphics for some of my future gift ideas… I’m really looking forward to use them for my ideas!

We all know that sometimes life doesn’t exactly live up to our expectations. You come to understand that you have to enjoy the good times and work through the bad. Yet, sometimes while you are in the storm it’s really hard to see past the clouds.I myself am going through changes in my life and I must say that the uncertainty really freaks me out. As a positive person I try to keep my spirits up but like everyone I could always use a little reminder.

The instant comfort pocket box by the much talented Kim certainly caught my eye. I think it makes a great token for a friend in need, since it works as a constant reminder that things will eventually work out. The pocket size lets you carry it around with you, so you can always pop it out when you need a smile. The graphics are very sweet and I admire the simplicity of opening a box that make you smile instantly.